Freelance Pilot

A Freelancer is effectively a mercenary pilot. Loyal to neither the Rebel Alliance nor the Galactic Empire, most Freelancers are willing to fly missions for any group with enough credits. Freelancers might find themselves working for the Smuggler's Alliance on Tatooine, the Corellian Secuity Forces (CorSec), or even the Royal Security Forces (RSF) of Naboo. Freelancers utilize a variety of craft, including those originally designed for criminal groups such as the Hutts and Black Sun. Through rigorous training and various underworld contacts, Freelancers learn exotic piloting techniques and master black-market droid programs.

The life of a Freelancer involves a great deal of conflict. Freelancers who work for reputable groups might find themselves policing systems and battling pirates. When running missions for the Hutts or the Smuggler's Alliance, a Freelancer is likely to run afoul of local authorities or even the Empire.

Contents

Getting Started

Starting with the Freelancer Pilot tree involves visiting one of three trainers. These trainers can be found on the planets of Naboo, Corellia, and Tatooine. Talking to a trainer will allow you to pick up the Basic Pilot skill and start down the path of being a Master Pilot.

Which trainer you initially visit determines the Freelancer squadron you join. Different squadrons have different missions to accomplish on the way to Ace, though all three squadrons require the same missions for Ace Pilot. The three squadrons, and their initial trainers, are:

To Master the Freelancer Pilot tree players that trained with the Smuggler Alliance squadron will have to talk to the Rebel Master Trainer, players that trained with the RSF squadron will have to talk to the Imperial Master Trainer and players that trained with the Corsec squadron will have a choice of talking to either of the two master trainers.

Around 90k mass on this thing gives you plenty of room to outfit it all the way to Master Pilot. This is definitely the ship of choice for starting pilots or former Master Pilots looking to grind the different factions out. While not as good as some of the other interceptor type ships in the long run, the higher mass limit can balance it out, making the Heavy Scyk worth using even at Master pilot.

Your first good starship as a freelance pilot. As of GU9 the Dunelizard along with many of the other Freelance ships will have increased mass limits and more chassis mods. Sporting a hefty 130k mass is a huge improvement compared to the 10k mass (or 90k) that you had with your Scyk. Given you have good techniques and a good flight computer it is possible to make it up to master with this ship (although you may have quite a bit of trouble with the Corvette).

Your space tank, this is your first power ship, capable of wielding 3 guns and ordnance as well. This ship is very slow, much like the Y-wing, but if you want to punch a hole in an enemy's defense, this is the ship for you (until you get yourself a Krayt).

This is the Freelance equivalent of the A-Wing. Very fast and hard to hit but 66k mass doesn't allow much room to breathe. The advantages of using this ship over the A-Wing or even the Actis is that it doesn't slide like the A-Wing, it just turns very sharply, and it has a .5 higher speed mod than the Actis.

This is a reward from doing a mission line for the Kashyyyk space station. The Vaksai is widely considered to be one of the best starfighters in the game due to a combination of 150k mass and near perfect chassis mods. No other ship has a 1.0 speed mod while sporting this much mass. The Vaksai is a great ship for newer players, if not for the simple reason that it's so easy to outfit.

A souped up version of the Kimo (and looks just like it except for the rear), this ship has a rear turret. Secondary weapon controlled by co-pilot. Note: This is multiplayer starfighter for the Freelancer.

This is one of the most sought-after ships in the game, the YT-1300 light freighter. Nothing much to say, only that it is a highly recommended ship for Smugglers, especially if you want to take the "Han Solo approach." Note: Some pilots consider the YT-2400 to be superior to the YT-1300 due to the weapon spread on both ships. The 2400's weapon spread is a little better and some pilots will find that the radar dish on the 1300 gets in the way of firing.

Freelancer Pilot Commands

Freelancer pilots aren't necessarily all pirates and mercenaries, but they certainly use unorthodox tactics. With no allegiances or traits in common (other than personal self interest), the Freelancer's starship tweaks and tricks cover a wide range of basic operational themes and effectiveness.

IFF Transponder Scramble

/iffscramble

With this command, a pilot can scramble his ship's on-board identification code. This allows the starship to temporarily broadcast a "friendly" recognition code to an enemy currently attacking the ship. If the transponder scramble is successful, attackers will cease fire. They will react if attacked, or eventually realize that they have been fooled by a transponder scramble and re-engage.

Emergency Thrust

/ethrust

In some battles, a little extra speed can mean the difference between life and death. The Emergency Thrust command temporarily increases the starship's speed by short-circuiting several subsystems and confusing engine/reactor sensors, the pilot can divert a ludicrous percentage of power from the starship's reactor and straight into the engines. The tradeoff is that most of the power routed to the engines is stripped from weapon and shield systems. Weapons will be disabled and unable to fire, and shields will no longer regenerate and will being to slowly dissipate. The duration of this effect varies with how well the pilot executed the command. Once the effect ends, the ship's systems will reset to default operational parameters.

Pirate Trap 1

/ptrap1

Sometimes a diversion is better than a fast ship. This command sends out a fake freighter distress call in an attempt to lure pirates to the area. The pirates attracted to this distress signal will create a major distraction that the pilot can use to ambush enemies or escape.

When this command is executed, the number and type of pirates that arrive is dependant on the level of success. If the pilot has a target, the pirates will attempt to attack that target. If the pilot doesn't have a target, the pirates will engage any ship in the area. If the pilot was generally successful with the initial command, the pirates won't come after the pilot (at least not initially). However, it the pilot is horribly unsuccessful, the pirates will recognize the ruse and, resentful of the ploy, attack the pilot mercilessly.

Pirate Trap 2

/ptrap2

With familiarity of the pirate comm channels comes the ability to circumvent and pervert these communications. Pirate Trap 2 attracts more powerful, and potentially more dangerous pirates.

Energy Pulse 1

/epulse1

This command creates a series of dangerous system overrides that short-circuit the starship's weapon capacitor, causing the vessel to emit a powerful and damaging omni-directional pulse of energy. This pulse is marginally under some semblance of control, and only enemy ships nearby will take damage. In addition to the brute-force external damage, there is a very slight chance that the pulse will cause damage directly to internal systems of nearby enemy vessels.

This command completely drains the weapon energy capacitor and can only be fired if the capacitor currently contains a minimum amount of energy. If a pilot fails the skill check for this ability, the energy pulse will fizzle before it is emitted. If the pilot fails dramatically, the pulse will blowback through the pilot's own systems and generally wreak havoc on the ship.

Energy Pulse 2

/epulse2

This more advanced form of the energy pulse is easier to control and is designed to damage and possibly even disable ship-subsystems. This command has much the same effect as Energy Pulse 1, but is more powerful. It's also a bit more difficult to execute successfully.

Energy Pulse 3

/epulse3

This version of the energy pulse command is an exercise in the sheer insanity. It not only pulls energy from the weapon capacitor but also taps the shield batteries to funnel an outrageous amount of power into the pulse. This energy pulse has very little finesse, and nearby friendly vessels have as much to fear as enemy vessels. A wise pilot would be well-advised to warn their friends away before triggering this command. With greater power comes a much higher damage output to both external components and internal systems. Energy Pulse 3 also has a much higher chance of disabling internal systems.

Tip: Space Grinding Made Easy

If you don't have the patience for duty missions, there is an easy way to gain space XP for freelance pilots, albeit one that is frowned upon by some players.

Go to the Dathomir system and from there via the space station to Kessel. At Kessel you will find a space battle going on between Imperial and Rebeltier 5 NPC ships of all sorts. Since you are a neutral pilot, they all appear as blue (non-hostile) and will leave you alone, and you can engage in combat with any of them, which is exactly what this method is all about, because taking out tier 5 ships will give you a considerable boost of space XPs. Even players in unmodified tier 1 starter ships can benefit from this. Just target a B-wing or a Y-wing when you come across one and start shooting at it, making sure to stay behind it at all times. B- and Y-Wings are slow and therefore easy to keep up with. You should target the reactor in order to disable the ship. Since you're neutral, no other ships will fire at you, unless you accidentally hit them. Once you've disabled your target, all you have to do is to put your ship to a halt within firing range and blast the B- or Y-Wing out of the sky. This way you can kill tier 5 ships even though you're just a tier 1 pilot.

To begin with, stick to B-wings and Y-wings, but as you get better and your ship's equipment gets better, you can start testing yourself against X-wings, TIE fighters, TIE interceptors, and TIE Oppressors. You are advised to avoid A-wings because they are extremely fast and agile, and TIE Aggressors and gunboats, because they are heavily armed and can easily destroy your ship unless you have a high tier level and the equipment to go with it.

Edit: this strategy grants around 7-8 k Starship combat experience per kill, but depending on your galaxy and the time of day, your Kessel system may or may not be inhabited by starships. Sometimes, new starfighters won't spawn very quickly, which means you could be waiting a long time for new Y and B wings. TIEs are often so fast that they're not worth the trouble for the exp they give, unless there aren't any other ships left. Also, some of these starfighters could be part of someone's mission, and firing on them can aggro ALL the allied ships (fire at the wrong B Wing, for example, and you'll suddenly see all Rebel ships turn red). The only way to fix this situation is to leave the system and come back. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell which ships are part of a mission and which aren't before you fire.

A Different Approach:
Try to get 2x Weapons that can do 1400+dmg each. While in Kessel, Find a Rebel Gunboat with no Rebel ships near it, it should be blue and nonaggro if you're Freelance. The weakness of the NPC gunboat is their inability to shoot ships that are beneath them. So fly under the ship and face directly at its belly (note... unless they turn over... then you go poof):

\\
>gunboat>
^
|
You

Halt your engines and open fire on the Reactor, keep firing until the ship has moved out of range or it starts to show it's top. Again, move beneath the ship and commence firing, eventually you'll disable it and can continuously fire until you blow it up; netting you ~26000 Space Exp.